Introduction
There are different classes of crisis as follows; poverty-associated crisis like underemployment and unemployment, environmental crisis (environmental disaster, natural disaster, and endangered species), economic crisis, international crisis, and personal crisis (Seeger, Sellnow & Ulmer, 1998, p. 238-246). In this case, this paper will address issues regarding natural disasters and specifically, the earthquake the recent earthquake in Haiti.
An enormous earthquake occurred in Haiti, where it damaged the country’s capital city, Port au Prince. The death toll could have reached approximately the six-figure level. As a result, the nation has been faced with several challenges such as inadequate food, water, and fuel. These inadequacies hindered rescue and search operations.
Crisis intervention approach
The situation in Haiti was terrible and people who had family members in Haiti could not communicate because the telephone and other communication systems had been damaged. Linkages to family members and outside support teams would have assisted earthquake victims in their psychological recovery. Grounded on the Bronfenbrenner approach, the mesosystem, chronosystem, exosystem, macrosystems, and Microsystems could have been affected in the following manner. At the level of microsystem, in day-to-day life, people in Haiti socially communicated and interacted with various forms of systems to obtain both extrinsic and intrinsic resources. After the occurrence of the earthquake, several people might have gathered immediately to obtain tangible resources such as water, medical attention, shelter, and helping to rescue family members from the wreckage of the earthquake. At the exosystem and mesosystem levels, the individuals of Haiti met with organizations or agencies, inter-communication links (media, television networking, two-way radio), the government and organizational supports. These meetings were necessary, to aid in the distribution of food and water to the victims. In addition, the meetings helped facilitate mental and medical health care assistance at the national, federal, regional, state, and local levels.
At the level of macrosystem, there was a bigger pouring of help to assist in the crises or disaster relief at the national level, with other national/countries governments offering to help. Moreover, religious affiliations, churches, schools, and transportation modalities were assembled to deal with the requirements of the victims of the Haitian disaster.
Finally, at the chronosystem level, it was significant for the crisis interventionists to view both the system and individual level situations that occurred before the events of the Haitian earthquake. For instance, Haiti has previously dealt with traumas of coupes, earthquakes, wars, and poverty. There had been a lot of unrest in the culture before the occurrence of the latest situation (ABC News. 2010, par. 7).
To appropriately coordinate relief attempts for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, one should make sure that the basic requirements of the survivors have been achieved. Delivering the primary requirement for shelter should be a major area of interest. Accordingly, priority should be given to the elderly, children, and the sick in getting their primary requirements for survival. Once the primary requirements have been met, groups of utility workers, emergency service personnel, and volunteers can then be released to assist in cleaning up the area and restore electric power, amongst other things.
Mental health personnel could also be stationed at a strategic building to help in the rescue operation. Loss of property, life, and the disruption of day-to-day life could be some of the issues the mental health personnel encounter while responding to the crises. Assisting victims who had been separated from their loved ones for a lengthy period of time via the crisis intervention strategy of offering assistance or support is beneficial since it permits the victim to express their emotions. In addition, crisis workers could try to validate the emotional responses of the victims and train them on the appropriate coping strategy. Allowing for catharsis could be another efficient crisis intervention strategy implemented by crisis workers who are counseling victims who exhibit high signs of arousal and displacement. Moreover, bereavement and the grief from the loss of loved ones and property would be intervened with empathetic listening and reassuring victims that they will positively cope with the disaster and that the emotions they are going through are natural (James, 2008, p. 79).
For several decades, crisis intervention has been confirmed as a successful way for victims who have experienced different forms of crisis to cope with such traumatic events. This is especially the case for the extreme or excessive stressors which might lead to psychological trauma. Therefore, crisis intervention refers to the supplying of instant psychological services or care to individuals to help these victims resume an effective or adaptive degree of operation. Moreover, it helps one alleviate or avoid the probable negative effects of psychological trauma. Thus, crisis intervention ought to be the actual consequence of the status of the specified predicament (Everly & Mitchell, 1999, p. 34).
The main purpose of crisis intervention is to ensure stabilization, mitigation, and restoration of the former state of an individual before the occurrence of the traumatic event. Therefore, the steps of intervention are intervening immediately, stabilizing, facilitating comprehension, centering on problem-solving and encouraging self-reliance.
Ethical, legal, and multi-cultural considerations
Legal considerations are very crucial while the crisis workers are offering assistance and they include; asking permission from the local authority in Haiti, which will help them work in collaboration with the local authority to serve the victims. In addition, by seeking permission from the local authority before their initial assessment they will be in a position to get relevant information because the authority will inform the victims. Moreover, in case of any referrals, the authority will assist them in referring to the appropriate areas.
Ethical considerations while serving the victims are significant and before the crisis workers start their assessment they need to seek the consent of the victims and promise them that the information they will give will be private and confidential. Therefore, by considering such ethics, the victims in Haiti will be in a position to trust the crisis workers and provide the necessary information.
Similarly, multicultural considerations are significant and before responding to earthquake disaster, crisis employees should first consider and understand the cultures and beliefs of the affected populations. Moreover, the crisis workers should utilize information obtained to select crisis intervention approaches and strategies which are culturally appropriate. Thus, in the case of earthquake in Haiti, some of the victims could not speak English and the crisis workers had to use a translator in order to get the correct information and serve all the victims equally. In addition, some of the victims in Haiti do not request for help, therefore, the crisis workers had to utilize someone who comprehends the culture appropriate and would help them in giving relief or any other services to such victims.
Potential impact of earthquake
After one has been affected by an earthquake like in Haiti, he or she may experience such emotions as frustration, fear, confusion, horror and anger. In addition, other feelings like shame, guilt, self-blame and survival guilt of failing to assist others may also be experienced. Moreover, sorrow, loss and grief for the loss of loved ones may as well be experienced (The U.S. Department of State, 2010, p. 1). According to the psychoanalytic theory, childhood experiences or challenges and unconscious desires affect the behavior of the child. The behavior of an individual following an exposure to an earthquake experience change. For example, the person develops phobia for lighting, predicaments associated with nightmares, emotional numbing, irritability, hyper-vigilance, flashbacks, lack of interest in living, being constant alert and memory problems. In addition, other victims might end up wetting their beds at night out of fear. Most of the people who experience fear after being exposed to an earthquake will recognize that the fear is disrupting their day to day operations such as bathing, sleeping and moving in a building.
After an earthquake experience, the cognition and development of the affected individuals change. From the Erikson’s theory, a child undergoes several stages during its development process. Therefore, some the children who experienced the earthquake in Haiti, developed mistrust and for this reason, they always feel unsafe and insecure after that sad experience.
Therefore, they will develop a sense of terror and think that the globe is unpredictable and inconsistent. In addition, some children, upon reaching a certain stage, might isolate themselves from others due to the fear that they look different from those who did not experience a disaster in question. Moreover, people who had their property destroyed might despair and feel as though they have not accomplished anything in life. This is especially the case with the elderly. Many individuals are bothered by their conscience when they encounter a situation which requires them to make a decisive decision. Conceiving the moral sense as reproving or admonitory might be associated with guilt related with traumatic situations at the time and some periods following the earthquake. In addition, the moral sense of such people does not understand the correct answer. Moreover, due to the psychological effects of the earthquakes, the affected individual develops slowly and productivity is lowered. Children cognition is affected and their school performance becomes poor (Goenjian, Barbara, Stilwell, Steinberg, Fairbanks, Galvin, Karayan & Pynoos, 1998, p. 23).
Similarly, according to Sigmund Freud, early experiences take a large part in the development of an individual and persist to affect the behavior of that person. Since personality development goes through several stages where pleasure-seeking energies get centered on particular erogenous areas, if the stages are finished or completed effectively, the end result is a person who is healthy. On the other hand, if the issues are not solved well at the right stage, fixation can occur. Therefore, children who experienced the Haiti earthquake and did not receive adequate solutions on how to overcome such a situation might remain fearful all the time in case of any loud noise or lighting.
The earthquake in Haiti had severe impact on the ecosystem because of the devastation and inadequate financial resources available to help repair the destruction to the ecosystem and the community at large. Prior to the occurrence of the earthquake, environmental structures within the community were of poor quality since the area is considered a lower class zone. Therefore, the long-term repairs affected the whole community. Different agents contributed in providing resources to the communities in order to repair their damages; however, psychological assistance and home repair was inadequate or slow in the process. Earthquakes that have magnitude of 7.5 and above leads to tsunamis, and these move several kilometers over an open ocean, causing severe damages to the shores (Noson, Qamar & Thorsen, 1988, p. 78).
Earthquakes are one of the disasters that have a great impact world-wide. They results to tremendous consequences that require intervention from all fields where different countries have to play a major part. For instance, in the case of Haiti, different countries had to channel their resources; food, money and health team among others to Haiti in order to assist the country in handling the disaster. Besides, the area where the earthquake occurs being affected economically, socially, structurally and psychologically, the disaster impact on the entire world. This is because if the economy of that country is affected and probably there were some commodities which other countries used to import from or export to, the world economy will also be affected. The death tolls which are reported due to earthquake crisis, affect the world indirectly since, such individuals who died could have travelled to invest in other countries. Thus, in case a crisis occurs, it does not only affect the original country, but the consequences impact on the world.
Crisis intervention strategies and skills
In order for one to help an individual who has been exposed to a traumatic situation, there is the need to employ intervention skills and strategies. First, there is psychological first aid which refers to an evidence-informed mode of approach for helping individuals in the immediate consequences crisis. The importance of psychological first aid is to minimize the original suffering that resulted from traumatic situations and to promote long and short-term adaptive operating or functioning. Psychological first aid consists of six models.
When using the psychological first aid skill to assist individuals who have been affected by earthquake, one need to define the problem in which the victim is in, make sure that the victim is safe and offer support. In addition, when one meets with the victims of the earthquake, it is significant to listen and try to view what the predicament is through the victim’s point of view. While providing assistance to the victim, the person should utilize open ended questions and should not be judgmental. Open ended questions will help the victims to express themselves and help the aider to understand the situation appropriately. In addition, one needs to express empathy to the victims at all the times. More importantly, is that the person should meet with the victims in a place where they feel safe, away from the site where the earthquake occurred. The person should also show the victims caring support through body language and verbal words (James, 2008, p. 49-51).
Similarly, psychological first aid strategy involves examining alternatives, obtaining commitments and making plans. While examining alternatives or options with the victims, one should look at the victim’s support systems. The support systems would be formed or created by other victims, family members, the community and friends support systems. There is the need to expose the victims to the coping technique, as this might help them heal quickly from the trauma. In addition, the victim and the aider could plan to create a support system which is easily accessible and coping techniques which the victim can carry out to offer her or him a feeling of control over her or his life. Before completing the entire process, the person and the victim should talk about the agreed upon strategies to ensure that the victim has a good comprehension about it. The victim should feel as though he or she has control over their circumstance and for there to be commitment, there is need to contain one’s acceptance and input (James, 2008, p. 56).
Another method used is referred to as ‘strategies for crisis intervention and prevention’ (SCIP). It is utilized when a person is at risk of being physically endangered to one self or to another individual. Talk therapy is one of the SCIP where a physician will process the actual or apparent situation with the person by talking about the solutions to the crisis, talking peacefully and tenderly and attempting to reestablish emotional stability. Thus in the case of an earthquake, one is supposed to implement the strategy by involving the victim in a discussion where the two parties discusses about earthquake and try to ask the survivor to suggest some of the solutions which can mitigate or prevent earthquake reoccurrence (Carson, 2010, par. 4).
Similarly, another strategy or skill that one would use to respond to the victims is to ensure that individuals understand what is taking place through the media. This would assist the victims or others where to gather for comfort and safety. In addition, the health team would understand the number of people they are supposed to handle and hence, prepare themselves adequately.
Long-term psychological effects
There are several consequences which are associated with earthquakes; psychological effects, environmental effects, physical effects and structural effects among others. According to several researches carried out, most of the victims of earthquakes suffer from acute effect on their brain operation and this poses a great risk to the psychological or mental health of the victims. Some of the long-term psychological effects which the victims suffer from include stress-associated disorders. Examples of these stress-associated disorders are posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder (ASD). For example, in Italy, approximately 14 percent of the persons or adults exposed or endangered to the current earthquakes, experienced PTSD six months afterwards. In addition, people encountering serious emotional trauma have some of the areas of their brain being hyperactive while others have reduced functional connectivity (Finn, 2005, par. 8-10).
Similarly, children who have experienced earthquake suffer from long-term psychological effects. They suffer from depression, attention problems, aggressive behavior, anxiety, delinquent and withdrawal behavior. In addition, such children show predicaments in adaptive function which can be determined by the excellence of the schoolwork of the child, the degree of excitement in class, the degree of studying in class and the correctness of the behavior of the child when compared to other children who are of the same age. For instance, in young people, PTSD happens to approximately 25 percent of them and al most 50 percent of the others suffer from minute psychological or mental disorders. There is declension in school productivity to the children who experience earthquake. Therefore, psychological impacts of earthquakes still exist for several years after the occurrence (Sims, 2010, par. 2).
Risk and resilience factors
The responsibility of disasters in creating and sustaining the sequence of poverty and subverting growth and improvement is progressively identified as a main world-wide problem. While most of the current disasters are associated with geophysical situations like earthquakes, almost 75 percent are associated with weather and this percentage is most likely to increase as climate alteration procedures raise the unpredictability and magnitude of weather situations. Thus, cost-effective plans or strategies for minimizing disaster risk are keys to achieving improvement objectives and reacting to the predicaments of climate alteration will show all areas of the community, especially the women, children and poor people. Risk factors might impact on recovery if applicable approaches for recognizing, prioritizing and maximally indicating the costs and advantages of appropriate interventions to minimize risks, especially those that are likely to arise due to climate alterations are timely implemented (Moench, Caspari & Pokhrel, 2008, p. 13).
Earthquakes become disasters because of poor circumstances of the infrastructure and buildings, socio-economic weakness and deficiency of resilience. Similarly, resilience factors contribute in heightening the capability of individuals to put up with disasters. Social resilience refers to the capability of communal teams and societies to recuperate from or react optimistically to disaster. Therefore, emergency management strategy should identify and develop from this capability, and that developed indicants of communal resilience ought to get precedence recognition in the implementation of these strategies. Hence, in earthquake situations, resilience factors can be used to bring in resistance and recovery. This is because resistance associates with the efforts of a society to resist disaster and its effects while recovery associates with the capacity of the society to return to its normalcy level of pre-disaster (Sungay, Durukal, Kilic, Konukcu, Basmaci, Khazai & Erdik, 2009, p.1).
Trends and future research on earthquakes
Over the past several years, seismologists have sought to better understand the physical procedures which control the incidence of earthquakes. In addition, seismologist have approximated that the sense of surface displacement to be anticipated in several seismically dynamic places and encounters, has indicated that destruction resulting from unswerving shaking of the earth surface could be caused by tsunamis, fires and landslides (Rai, 2000, p. 1292). However, the future goals of the seismologist concerning the earthquake prediction remains as indefinable as ever. Though some of the seismologists say that earthquakes might be foreseeable in the very soon that expected, others claim that their happening is significantly unsystematic and that study or research concerning earthquakes prediction might be unsuccessful (Rai, 2000, p. 1292).
The future research of earthquake prediction is aimed at gathering trustworthy earthquake statistics, mapping the allocation of dynamic errors, assuring the existing state on the rate of strain and stress, measuring the seismicity rate in the future and approximating the anticipated degree of earth surface-shaking through computer modeling. Moreover, use of computer technologies will lead to early warning and evaluation of early destruction strategies to be created. This will assist the disaster response specialists to be either forewarned of the destructing waves nearing or be informed of the places where the most powerful earth surface-shaking has happened (Rai, 2000, p. 1293). Similarly, future trends of earthquakes include management of the plan dubiousnesses via probabilistically model, explaining satisfactory risk via performance goals, performance-grounded pattern codes, delineation of the pattern surface movements, modern structural materials and systems and logical equipment for powerful evaluation of structures.
Conclusion
A natural disaster causes dangerous threats to an individual, community and the country at large. Since natural disaster occur naturally and pose severe threat to the life and wellbeing of the public, they can only be handled through appropriate planning and preparedness. The situation in Haiti was terrible and people who had family members there could not communicate because the telephone and other communication systems had been damaged. Linkages to family members and outside support team would likely go far to helping victims in their psychological recovery. Grounded on the Bronfenbrenner approach or model, the mesosystem, chronosystem, exosystem, macrosystems and Microsystems are also affected.
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